The Book of Mormon will not stop telling you where the record is. Who's holding it. Who handed it off. What they did with it and why. A retired trial attorney read that and recognized something from thirty years in courtrooms: a chain of custody.

Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot sit down with Stephen Lundwall: retired IP and business attorney and former BYU religion faculty, to talk about Authentic: The Book of Mormon, Evidences of a Miracle, written with his wife Rebecca Lundwall and published by Deseret Book. Lundwall makes the case the way he'd make it to a jury: witnesses, exhibits, cross-examination, and a closing argument.

===Informed Saints Credits===

Produced by The Ancient America Foundation

Producer: Spencer Clark

Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye

In this episode:

• What "provenance" means, and why archaeologists and attorneys care about the same thing

• Why Moroni being the final author of the record changes everything about the handoff

• Isaac Taylor's 1827 argument that ancient literature, history, and religion all rest on secure transmission — published the same year Moroni delivered the plates

• What the original and printer's manuscripts actually show, and why the translation itself is evidence

• Elizabeth Whitmer and Emma Smith on what they watched happen day after day

• The interruptions Joseph never needed read back to him

• The 28 words in Joseph Smith's own handwriting — the only ones in the entire manuscript

• How Oliver Cowdery learned to spell Coriantumr

• The Hebraic "if–and" conditional in Moroni 10:4 that Joseph edited out of later editions

• Bernard DeVoto, internal consistency, and translating a 500-page book inside out

• The "legal truth test" for a witness who says he saw an angel: honest, competent, biased, reasonable

• David Whitmer's 1881 Richmond affidavit — and why Alexander Doniphan's signature on it matters

Get Authentic: The Book of Mormon, Evidences of a Miracle by Stephen and Rebecca Lundwall: https://amzn.to/4ww8YrH 

Further Readings:

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/original-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon-circa-12-april-1828-circa-1-july-1829/194 

https://archive.org/details/addresstoallbeli00whit/page/9/mode/1up

https://scripturecentral.org/archive/books/book-chapter/-gift-and-power-god-0

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-circa-summer-1832/1

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/printers-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon-circa-august-1829-circa-january-1830/1

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/original-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon-circa-12-april-1828-circa-1-july-1829/1 

https://www.deseret.com/faith/2026/06/05/church-of-jesus-christ-acquires-daguerreotype-some-say-is-the-only-photo-of-joseph-smith/ 

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===Discover===

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https://www.discoverbookofmormon.org/

===Content Disclaimer===

The views expressed represent ours alone and do not necessarily reflect the official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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